The Inflatable Boat Community, A Great Boating Discussion Forum Providing Free Help And Advice For Owners of Ribs, Sibs, Foldable Rib And Other Small Water Craft.
Has anyone any experience of these ? Web searches reveal not much info. The one I am looking at is 12ft, so I assume 3.6m. It has a hard floor with an inflatable keel. I know these keels are not well thought of, but on reflection I think I may need a hard floor for my fishing exploits and lobster potting, as opposed to the air v floor, a la Honwave.
My main concern is the weight, though I guess the floor parts will be bagged separately which would make moving it about a bit easier. It seems a good price at £1000 with transom wheels, electric pump and a 2008 9.9hp Yamaha.
This boat is some 400 miles away, so viewing not possible before purchase .
Whilst not confused, the array of sibs available is staggering and trying to make my mind up which would suit my needs is difficult. Ease of use has to be near the top of the list. I live very close to my prospective launch site and likely to just nip out for a couple of hours regularly, so I may end up with a trailer,therefore weight wouldn’t be too much of an issue....
Redron wrote: I know these keels are not well thought of,
Any input appreciated
Im not sure where that info came from Redron ?..but my Quicksilver 4.3 HD has a solid wooden floor and an inflatable keel..and its the best inflatable boat I have owned...or been in. Many other happy owners around. I have regularly been in a Honwave T40 too and its a cracking boat.
Personally I would not have an airfloor ..but I would not say airfloors they are not well though of..they are. It depends on your use.
Airfloors are designed for compact light weight boating easily transported in cars. Wooden floor SIBs are designed for folks who like to stamp around their boat with no fear of damaging it. However they are not really easily transported or assembled each outing. Some folks do..but most will use a trailer.
If your plan is to launch off the beach closed your house..save some money ..transom wheels dont work on those big round stones ..especially at low tide. I know that from personal experience. They will work well using the slips at Broadford..Ord.. Harlosh etc.
I know nothing about the brand you mention..I would perhaps consider the common name brands such as Honwave..Excel (They now have a new line of aluminium hull inflatables for 2018 at excellent prices) Mercury, Aerotec etc would be my recommendation..I wont recommend airfloor or hard floor to you that's your choice.
All this in only my opinion though..based on my personal experiences
The Gurnard wrote:
I know nothing about the brand you mention..I would perhaps consider the common name brands such as Honwave..Excel (They now have a new line of aluminium hull inflatables for 2018 at excellent prices) Mercury, Aerotec etc would be my recommendation..I wont recommend airfloor or hard floor to you that's your choice.
Hmm..the edit function has now gone ?
anyhoo..I should have said ..the reason I would stick to common name brands is.. resale value. In my experience buying a second hand inflatable of a well known brand ..then selling it again when you are fed up with it.. is the most cost effective way of SIBbing
The Gurnard wrote:
I know nothing about the brand you mention..I would perhaps consider the common name brands such as Honwave..Excel (They now have a new line of aluminium hull inflatables for 2018 at excellent prices) Mercury, Aerotec etc would be my recommendation..I wont recommend airfloor or hard floor to you that's your choice.
Hmm..the edit function has now gone ?
Donny. The edit function was altered around 12 months ago, due to one forum member misusing it, all forum members apart from admin have a 15 minute window of time from posting in which you can edit the post, and 30 minutes to delete it,
Ok..thanks Paul B..I wasn't aware of that ..but I have not been around the forum for a while. I thought it used to be I could edit as long as no one else had posted.
I certainly don't mind..as I can understand that editing after others have posted is not good forum practise
For clarity Redron ..in case I have caused confusion ..
If someone with experience of the Gruevell has mentioned its keel is useless then I cant comment on that point as I don’t know those boats...so would say take their advice. If you mean in general on other brand of boats ..
Have a look at this video .. 4 boats are hard floors with inflatable keels .. also one is a deep V inflatable airfloor (Aerotec)..and one is an all polythene boat (Funyac). Weather was mixed on the crossing and some reasonable sized waves but the gopro flattens them so they don’t appear as big as they were.
Having been at sea with all the main brand different designs .. IMO .. none are obvious winners or loosers at anything ..the differences are subtle.. like the V floor aerotec is a slightly softer ride..it easily fits in a car ..easy to haul up and down a beach.
The heavy boats are definitely not so easy to move on land.. (I anchor when I land for a stop.) A Trailer and slip or hard sand shore makes it easy to launch and recover...however I find them slightly more suited to heavy weather because of the low down weight of the floor. I could carry full size pots in my boat ..no problem.
As an observation on the video .. All the solid floor boats arrived on trailers ..the aerotec high pressure airfloor arrived in a bag in the boot of a car.
Hope that helps. .. take your time buying ..its like cutting a piece of wood .. measure ..measure .. and measure again then cut once. No boat I know is perfect for every situation..its all a compromise so choose the points that suit you best.
All in my opinion only ..based on personal observations and experience.
Interesting points there Donny. I have enjoyed watching your exploits which Douglas sent via a link to one of his replies to my ‘Which sib’ post.
If you read through the replies to that post you see there are some that believe the inflatable ‘sausage ‘keels can move around beneath the floor, be it an air deck or a solid floor. That was my reference really. I have no experience as yet so I am happy to be guided....
As you say, it’s all down to what will suit me best , I had pretty much set my mind on the Honwave t32 with the v floor,but i’m now thinking it may not be rugged enough for knarly pots and mackerel feathers etc. and may consider a hard floor boat. Beginning to understand the pros and cons of either...
I teach some kids locally on Wednesday afternoons with some rudimentary woodwork and building skills, they are always quoting me ‘measure twice, cut once’ , I will take my own advice....
Hi Redron.. Im not sure which post you mean as I have not been around lately ?
I have hopefully given a true picture that inflatable keels under wooden floors are a perfect design. If anyone wants to say they are not..let them give reliable sources to back it up.. rather than offer words ?
The best possible example I can give to back that up inflatable keels under hard floors are excellent .. is the inshore Y Class inflatable’s used by our very own RNLI. I would not doubt their opinion on such a design.. but perhaps some may ..
sausage keels should have two securing points bow and stern and kept pumped up should pose no problem but a boat you might consider is a bombard C3 or C4 they have wooden keels and ali floors for info
